Kazma Hilton said that when she and Re/Max "decided to go our separate ways," she wanted to look for something new to bring to the Grand Rapids market.

"It's pretty scary to go in a direction that no one else has done," she said. "However, it's something that is needed in this community, and it's nice to open up doors that people didn't even know were available to them."

Dennis Pearsall, president of franchises for Real Estate One, said company leadership has wanted to be in the Grand Rapids area for some time, but it had to be the "right opportunity."

"We completely respect the need for local people at the helm in the Grand Rapids market running their companies, their business," he said. "We would not come into that market and just open up our doors and say, 'Here we are.'

"That's key to being in any market, but certainly in Grand Rapids."

Real Estate One was founded in the Detroit area in 1929 and is in its third generation of family ownership. Corporate offices are in Southfield, but franchise operations, which started in 1971, are based in Traverse City.

Pearsall said they have 31 franchises and about 50 company offices.

Kazma Hilton said her office has 17 agents now, but she expects to grow quickly.

"There is a reason they are so big on the other side of the state," she said. "They're big because they offer value not only to the customers and clients, but to the agents."